After a lot of work and planning the last weeks of learning co-ops is finally over and summer "break" has started . We know this because we camp every Memorial Day weekend in Tappahannock .  We walk through the marsh on a long boardwalk listening to the bracken click against each other and watching the red wing blackbirds dance.

We swim, splash, laugh, wrestle, drink, eat and dig our feet in the sand. Our hair smells like smoke and our skin changes color.

We play rousing games of Big Bootie, drink, tell stories, listen to friends play the Ukulele and are awakened to a new camper playing classical guitar. Pure Joy. 

The children become a tribe. The dogs attempt to form a pack.

The sun and wind molded us and we knew we were alive.

Thank you River.

Thank you friends. 

Our home school collective went on a field trip to a dairy farm yesterday. The excursion was illuminating, to say the very least. I certainly don't feel like an uninformed person when it comes to understanding where our food comes but seeing things up close and personal really brings the details into the blaring light. From my perspective, it was a sad, sad place to be. The cows live under a roofed concrete floor that is fashioned with water mattresses for them to lie down on. They walk around in their urine and feces. Their legs are and sometimes their sides are caked with their bodily fluids. And if you haven't been a round a cow in a long time,  their is a lot of urine and poo. The children marveled at the copious amount of waste issuing from the backsides of these black and white dairy maids.

I'm sure the waste is hosed out a few times a day and it probably wouldn't have seemed as awful to me if I hadn't asked the question, "When do they go out to pasture?" The answer: "Only when they are about 2 months from giving birth." Other than that they live on concrete floors. They are inseminated by humans (with bull sperm , of course), their calves are born, taken away and fed formula. The calves live in little plastic huts called "Calf-tels." Some of these structures  have the word HUMANE imprinted on them.

On the flip side, the farmers aren't rich. I don't mean this to be some sort of expose on dairy farms. My understanding (from a friend who has dairy farming family)  is that dairy farmers are not financed by banks unless they farm a certain way. The "certain" way is the the path to the most profit. The path to the most profit does not include pastures and exercise for the cows. The path does not include a natural diet for the cows but rather corn. Cows normally eat grass. Funny, we grow lawns and mow them like it is a religious ritual but cows must eat corn. The path does  include antibiotics, chemicals, water beds and aqua cow rising systems for downed cows.

So then, the farmers barely eek out a living, the cows live a life on concrete, corn and three milkings a day, we consumers imbibe denatured milk containing who knows what (really), and who reaps all the benefits from this mess? The big milk companies, chemical companies, agribusiness and banks I guess. I'm sure I'm missing something here but it all adds up to me thinking our family needs to change its eating ways. Reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle along with my continued readings of Wendell Berry has enlightened me but the path to eating in a just and sustainable way is a windy one. Our family lives on a very modest income. CSA's, buying shares in cows, buying local and organic foods and are prohibitively expensive for us. I held back a gasp the other day at our local organic Market, Ellwood Thompson's, when the clerk informed me that ONE organic red bell pepper cost $8. Again, who is REALLY profiting from those prices. The farmers? I doubt it.

So, I'm growing bell peppers and tomatoes and lettuce and peas and beans and basil and squash. But it won't be enough to get us through a year. It'll help though.

I've also been peeking through a book called Food Not Lawns. It has some radical ideas. I always like a sprinkling of radical. Food Not Lawns also has some fantastic ideas on how take control and ownership of our foodchain here and now. I'm pretty sure I'll be owning this book soon!

Clean Food. Pure Air. Clean Water. We, the living beings of this planet, need them all to be healthy.

Are we healthy? That is the question.

____________________________

Other suggested reading: Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 

photo: Shy Calf. Kimmy Certa 

In the interest of art here is the new Ed Trask mural on 21st and E. Main that I mentioned in a previous post about The Globe Hopper ( a new coffeeshop in Church Hill) and art in Richmond. Dare I say it is now my favorite Trask  piece now? Not only because of the sheer fact that it is of Nina Simone dammit, but it is also quite lovely. The palette and the painterliness of it makes it a pleasure to see. I'm fortunate enough to pass it daily. Thanks Ed !

 I never liked coffee until I got a job cooking in a small, indie coffeehouse in Richmond, Virginia. Twas around 1994 and I was looking for work. I was 24 and  had worked in kitchens for several years by then. Through a friend, I started cooking at World Cup Coffee. Within a week or two, the kitchen was all mine. All 10' X 10" of it (if that). The wee kitchen had a double sink, a small steel dishwasher, and a metal table with an industrial hot plate on top. Above it hung a big stock pot, a medium sized pot and a sauté pan. To the right was a shelf with herbs and spices. The convection oven was through the double swing doors behind the coffee bar.

 I created the menu and cooked everything for our little shop and two other shops the owners had just opened. Eventually, they scaled back to just the one shop again though. It was a great job and I worked with some amazing women. I made some forever friends and a boatload of memories at World Cup. For a while there I booked poetry readings and music there as well. It was a fantastic place to work.

And so began my work in coffeeshops and my love for coffee began with the oh-so-sweet, creamy and spicy Thai coffee.  Eventually, I weaned myself off the fattening and delicious sugary Thai brew and graduated to a deep fondness for espresso.

There is nothing quite like working in a coffeeshop. People come to you for a warm cup of caffeine imparting goodness. All kinds of people love and need their coffee. Grumpy old men who clog up your coffeehouse toilet and boast about it need coffee. Artists with or without talent need coffee. Medical students need lots of coffee and were definitely part of the coffeeshop camper crowd. Writers and real estate agents need their coffee; as do students and members of AA and NA. Business folks and sweet little penny counting grannies need their coffee. Crazy people need their coffee. Public masturbators, mothers, fathers, doctors, lawyers, judges and even the Governor needs some coffee. I love'm all and I think it is the people that have lured me into this career. If only I could make a living wage serving coffee, I just might make it my career.

I seriously considered opening up my own coffeeshop in the nineties but it just wasn't my time. For two women here in Richmond, it is time and they've opened up a lovely little coffeehouse near my neighborhood and I'm glad they did. It is in a building that Chris and I have always adored. A little corner shop with stained glass and some interesting graphics painted on the old brick near a Coca Cola ghost painting. The Globe Hopper opened a few days ago and I took my two little ones (seasoned coffeeshop customers) in to grab a latte and a treat and check out this new local business.

The Globe Hopper is well appointed. The stained glass I have admired since I moved here in 1990 was even more wonderful from the inside where sunlight shone through and created a rainbow of light on a sofa. Buddha art and handcrafted caramels were also appreciated by this trio of happy coffeeshop goers. However, the shining jewel of the Globe Hopper has to be the latte. It really was the most delicious latte I have ever had in the city of Richmond and I've had a lot of lattes. I've MADE a hundreds of lattes but this one was like a dessert. The espresso's flavor was so superior to any I've had in recent memory and the foam was perfect in every way.

Globe Hopper also uses cups made from recycled materials and corn plastic cups which are compostable. My personal jury is still out on corn plastics. I think it is great that they are biodegradable but me thinks that there must be a lot of chemicals and residual waste that goes into turning corn into plastic. <mental note: find out how corn becomes plastic>

I'll also mention that I briefly interacted with both of the owners of Globe Hopper and they were very pleasant. I wish them great joy in their business and community endeavors and if you live in the East End or are visiting us, do stop by 2100 E.Main Street if you love good espresso or homemade caramels for 40 cents !